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Two Part Solution ?????
- Thread starter ricwilli
- Start date
Your numbers look great for such a "massive" (feeling) goof. Ca & Mg are high, which is why the rest of it precipitated out. DKH looks a hair on the low side of normal (8-11). You can let your Ca & Mg work their way down over the next couple of days while you SLOWLY dose the alk supplement to bring it back to your running level (unless you're already there).
Lesson learned, no harm done. Deeeeeep breath!
Lesson learned, no harm done. Deeeeeep breath!
I'll chime in with pretty much the same thing. Don't dose both parts of the 2 part any more. ONLY dose the alk part for a while.
Try and keep your alk right at 8 dkh and let the calcium fall on it's own down to around 420. Then once you're at those levels dose in equal parts again. 420 calcium and 8 dKH are nice round numbers you can remember and are "balanced" so to speak.
Also try never to increase you alkalinity by more then 1 dKH in a day. It's too much of a shock to the system.
Carlo
Try and keep your alk right at 8 dkh and let the calcium fall on it's own down to around 420. Then once you're at those levels dose in equal parts again. 420 calcium and 8 dKH are nice round numbers you can remember and are "balanced" so to speak.
Also try never to increase you alkalinity by more then 1 dKH in a day. It's too much of a shock to the system.
Carlo
WOW..... I am glad I didn't kill anything. Now for the white stuff. What should I do? Just leave it in the tank or vaccum it. I think it will take a long time for the skimmer to skim it out. What about the pods in the fuge? Do you think they will be OK? I've been trying to build a supply of pods down there.
If you can easily suck it out then feel free to do so.
If anything was going to happen to the pods it would have happened already so if you still see them all is well. They should be just fine. I'd be more worried about the corals then anything else. They don't like the shock of alkalinity bouncing all over the place. In a few days you'll know where you stand with them.
BTW, why did you dose so much of both parts earlier?
Carlo
If anything was going to happen to the pods it would have happened already so if you still see them all is well. They should be just fine. I'd be more worried about the corals then anything else. They don't like the shock of alkalinity bouncing all over the place. In a few days you'll know where you stand with them.
BTW, why did you dose so much of both parts earlier?
Carlo
ricwilli said:
I wouldn't worry about it. You can try to siphon it out if you like. After a week or so, after things have had a chance to shed the 'sediment' (sedimentation is a common stressor in nature, and reef critters have to be able to shed sediment) you probably won't notice anything.
Agreed with the rest: dose just alkalinity for a few days, until calcium comes down a bit, then go back to equal dosing.
cj
p.s. This is generally one of the worst looking but relatively least harmful mistakes commonly made.
Carlo said:Chris Jury said:
Assuming you cause it with an overdose of two part or with an alk boost, but if you overdose on just calcium you can pretty easily bottom out your alk from the prcipitation which is pretty harmful.
Carlo
Fair enough. I should say that the consequences due to overdosing a balanced additive (except perhaps kalkwasser, which would raise the pH quite substantially) end up being relatively benign.
cj
ricwilli said:
I'd agree with Phyl not to run the reactor while you are gone. This is asking for to much trouble IMHO also. The best thing you could do if possible is get a fellow reefer from here to check on your tank a couple of times when you are gone! With the 20% water change the only thing they will probably need to test/dose is a buffer for keeping your alkalinity up and top off your evap water.
If that isn't possible, I'd purchase an automated top off unit and small pump like an aqualifter. Pickup a 32 gallon (or so) trashcan with tight fitting lid. Set the trashcan up next to the tank. Poke a small hole in the lid just tight enough to push airline through down to about 6" from the bottom of the trashcan. Fill the trashcan with RO/DI water and dump roughly half a small can of kalk in the trashcan and hand stir it well. The water will saturate with the kalk mix and any part not used will settle back to the bottom of the trashcan and won't hurt anything. The small pump/topoff unit will replace all your evap water with this kalk mix. The kalk itself will replace both calcium and alkalinity used by your tank. It may not match perfectly with your tank uptake but will tide you over until you get back home. Doing this and the 20% water change on Friday should hold you over pretty well.
Carlo